General Paediatrics – Routes for Advice
Resource
We thought it would be helpful to send a reminder of the various routes for advice available for general paediatric queries to help you access appropriate support in most timely way.
For patients who require admission: Please call Children’s Emergency Department directly 02381 208109. NB do consider a referral to Children’s home as an alternative if clinically appropriate: IS
For an urgent query e.g. do they need admission or rapid access clinic: Please call consultant advice line (07852691086). This is available Monday-Friday 10-13.00 and 17.00-20.00 and Sat/Sun. This service also supports the children’s hospital at home team hence weekend hours. There are currently gaps on the rota but please leave a message and the team will get back to you when next covered.
For non-urgent queries e.g. abnormal blood results, clarification of appropriate investigation/management plans please use Advice & guidance The hub MDT (see below) are also a great place to take these queries as wider team might benefit from the learning.
Primary Care Hub MDT: These are available for each of the city PCN’s with both a general paediatric and community consultant attached to each PCN. A good place to take queries and have an educational discussion on best next steps. Patients might be seen in the hub clinics following discussion at the MDT. The MDT clinic is a general paediatric clinic (not community paediatrics) and is ideally suited for cases that require a bit of additional time, parental reassurance, or review of diagnosis/management plans for common conditions – abdominal pain, headaches, constipation. Please ensure if you are referring to this clinic there is not a duplicate referral to the hospital or community paediatric services
As ever do remember all the Wessex Healthier Together Pathways as excellent resource for appropriate investigation and management as well as red flags and when to refer for many of the common conditions. If there are any others, you would like please let us know. Finally, do please think “are bloods really necessary?” there has been a 3-fold increase in number of requests in the last few months with now over 1500 requests from primary care each month which is not only causing a significant backlog but potentially unnecessary cost and anxiety to the patients.
